Think of one thing you would like to see more of in your world—whether that’s your home, workplace, community, and/or country.
What would happen if, rather than sitting back and waiting for that change, you acted on the famous words of Mahatma Gandhi, “You must be the change you wish to see.”
Culture consists of all those things that people have learned to do, believe, value, and endure in their history.1 Culture becomes the sum of what is being modeled, supported, and rewarded. To initiate, implement, and sustain a culture shift within any world—including your organization—it is imperative that you model, support, and reward the change you envision.
Saying and Doing: Modeling Change
Step one to changing culture is to examine the culture around you. Seek and consider input from others about what an improved workplace would look like. Envision the improved future organization. Decide what is most important to support in order to bring the desired vision to fruition. Enroll others who you need support from to achieve the desired end result.
As Martin Luther King Jr. stated, “A genuine leader is not a searcher of consensus, but a molder of consensus.” Inspire others to share your vision by communicating your vision in compelling ways that will inform others about why they should care. Explain what is in it for them and others they care about.
Determine what is important to say, and what is important to demonstrate through actions, so that you will effectively model behaviors that support the realization of your vision. Put forth a call for others to join you in talking and walking the desired change.
Teaching, Funding, and Providing Resources: Supporting Change
Think of the popular saying, “Put your money where your mouth is.” Just as it is important to say and do that which you desire to become a greater part of the culture, it is also important to support others who you would like to have join you in the endeavor. This requires an investment of energy, time, resources, and effort.
In the home, if I want reading to become a greater part of my family’s culture, I must speak of this vision and read myself. Yet, if I do not invest the energy, time, resources, and effort necessary to ensure that my children receive appropriate reading material, instruction, and practice to achieve the vision, it is not as likely to come to fruition.
At work, if I want employees to engage in collaborative problem solving, I should model this by doing it with my team. However, this vision must also be reflected in employees’ goals and performance evaluations, and I need to ensure that employees receive essential instruction, coaching, and performance feedback about how to work collaboratively and problem solve with others. If not, it is unlikely that collaborative problem solving will become a part of the greater work culture.
If I envision a community and country where citizens are respectful, law abiding, and compassionate, I need to do more than model respectful, law abiding, and compassionate behavior. I must urge community leaders and school officials, as well as provide them with resources to teach, coach, and encourage these behaviors. Only then will respectful, lawful, and compassionate behaviors increase.
Sufficient energy, time, resources, and effort must be invested to bring about a culture shift.
Acknowledging and Giving Benefit: Rewarding Change
People are intentional beings. This aspect of who people are is referred to as our psyche. When psyches come together, it creates intentional worlds (cultures). Psyches impact culture just as much as culture impacts psyches; the two are interdependent.2
Therefore, you need to understand that people do what they do to receive what they want. If I model the thing that I want to see more of and help others obtain the resources, knowledge, skills, abilities, and expectations necessary to realize the vision, but I don’t explain how others can benefit from the vision, the desired culture shift is unlikely.
What would happen if my child improved his reading skills and I acknowledged, complimented, and rewarded him with a special meal? Or, what if I acknowledged, complimented, and gave a note of appreciation (or an award, discretionary leave, promotion, and/or a grander reward) to an employee to recognize their excellence in collaborating on a project? I could also reward, compliment, and give a special award to students and community members who demonstrate respectful, law abiding, and compassionate behaviors.
What if in each of these instances I was able to determine and do something that the persons whose behavior I wanted to encourage considered to be of benefit to them? This increases the likelihood of the behaviors becoming a greater part of the culture.
What norms, values, and behaviors are intentionally or unintentionally being rewarded in the culture around you? Are they norms, values, and behaviors that you do or do not want to be part of your workplace culture?
Find out what would be perceived as a benefit to those you want to motivate, and develop and implement a plan to reward behaviors that reflect desired norms, values, and actions.
Driving From the Top Level
In a nutshell, if you want to initiate and sustain new norms, values, and/or behaviors in a culture, model, support, and reward the change you wish to see.
Culture shifts can begin and be driven from any level within an organization or society. However, culture shifts that are embraced by and driven from the top levels of a culture’s hierarchy of authority, power, and/or influence can typically be implemented with greater ease and less damage than shifts initiated by people lacking support from the culture’s formal power base.
ENDNOTES
1. For more, refer to Cultural Psychology: A once and future discipline by Michael Cole, published by Belknap Press of Harvard University in 1996.
2. Refer to Thinking Through Cultures: Expeditions in cultural psychology by Richard A. Shweder, published by Harvard University Press in 1996.
Sheryl Gee is vice president of training and organizational development for InnoVisions, which is a social enterprise of Neighborhood House Association, a member of the United Neighborhood Centers of America that's based in San Diego. Over the past 25 years, she has helped people to work better and work better together by focusing on organizational development.
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